Sustainability Minor Requirements

The Sustainability Minor requires a minimum of 18 credit hours of course work, at least 9 of which must be taken at UCCS, and at least 9 of which must be upper-division (3000+ level). All courses must be completed with a grade of C (2.0) or better. A maximum of 9 credits can apply towards both the Sustainability Minor and your major.

Required Courses

The following courses are required for the minor:

• GES 1500: Intro to Environmental Studies and Sustainability (offered fall semester only), 4 credits
• GES 4800: Sustainability Seminar (prereq. GES 1500, junior standing; offered spring semester only), 3 credits

For the remaining credits, students must complete at least one course focusing on each of the three pillars of sustainability: environment, equity, and economy. The following courses, grouped by category, represent the options for meeting this requirement. Courses listed here include a significant component or unit dedicated to sustainability issues, knowledge, or applications. Note that some of the listed courses include prerequisite courses and/or may not be offered every semester. Special topics courses, internships, independent studies, and other courses that are not listed in the minor may qualify for credit and will be evaluated case-by-case by the Director of the Sustainability Minor.

IMPORTANT! Courses that are being offered, and the course numbers they correspond to, are constantly changing and evolving. You may find that some of the courses listed below do not automatically show up on you degree audit as counting toward the Minor. Please email your academic advisor AND Dr. Christine Biermann (cbierman@uccs.edu), Director of the Sustainability Minor, if some of your courses are not appearing on your degree audit.

Environment (complete at least one course):

• ANTH 4270 Landscape Archaeology: Sustainability and Collapse
• BIOL 3750 Conservation Biology
• CHEM 1111 Environmental Science
• CHEM 4521 Environmental Chemistry
• ENSC 2670 Exotic Energy Sources
• ENSC 4600 Advanced Solar Energy
• GEOL 3700 Environmental Geology
• GES 1000 Environmental Systems: Climate & Vegetation
• GES 3170 Saving Place
• GES 3180 Changing Place
• GES 3250 Geography of Climate Change
• GES 4170 Writing Place
• GES 4260 Biogeography
• GES 4280 Forest Geographies
• GES 4340 Soils
• GES 4410 Resource Management and Conservation
• GES 4420 Conservation & Public Lands
• GES 4480 Environmental Problems of Colorado
• GES 4500 Water Resources & Problems
• GES 4510 Hydrology
• GES 4570 Military, Environment & Society
• GES 4650 Restoration Geographies
• GES 4660 Urban Sustainability (offered in summer)
• HPNU 4090 Food, Culture, Community and Health
• MAE 2301 Engineering Thermodynamics I
• MAE 3320 Biomass Energy Analysis
• PES 1500/ENSC 1500 Energy Science I
• PES 1510/ENSC 1510 Energy Science II
• PES 1600/ENSC 1600 Introduction to Solar Energy
• PES 2500 Sustainable Energy Fundamentals
• SOC 4250 Sociology of the Environment

Economy (complete at least one course):

• BGSO 4000 Business, Government, and Society (only for College of Business Students)
• BUAD 3950 Topics in Business: Social Entrepreneuship 
• COMM 4290 Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
• ECON 2310 Economics of Sustainability
• ECON 3300 Environmental Economics I
• ECON 3310 Ecological Economics
• ECON 3610 Work and Pay
• ECON 3730 Economics of South Asia
• ECON 3770 Economic Development
• GES 1560/HIST 1560 Environmental History of the U.S.
• GES 3610 Urban Geography
• GES 450 Cultural and Political Ecology
• GES 4750 Recreation, Tourism, and the Environment
• GES 4980 Internship (must receive approval from Director of Sustainability Minor)
• MAE 4320 Sustainable Energy Systems (only open to Engineering students)
• PHIL 3210 Political Economy: Capitalism
• PSC 4280/ECON 3280 International Political Economy
• HRMG 4850 Directed Research in HR & Management (only for College of Business students; must be related to sustainability)
• SOC 4600 Critical Analysis of Capitalism

Equity (complete at least one course):

• ANTH 3040 Women Around the World
• ANTH 3430 Approaches to Globalization
• ANTH 3660 Applied Community Studies
• ENGL 2920 English Studies: Sustainability
• ENGL 3220: Gender, Writing, and the Environment
• ENGL 3421: Nature's Nation: Sustainability and American Literature
• ENGL 4973: Shakespeare and Sustainability
• ENGR 3040 Engineering Ethics
• FR 3070 Sustainable Development in the Francophone World
• GERM 3070 German Topics in Sustainable Development
• GES 3500 Nature and Society
• GES 3610 Urban Geography
• GES 3730 Population Geography
• GES 3920 Geography of Food
• GES 4460 Field Studies in Geography (Silverton)
• GES 4620 Race, Ethnicity, & Place
• GES 4680 Inequality USA
• GES 4700 Geographic Issues: Geographies of Displacement
• GES/SOC/WEST 4780 Global Migration
• PHIL 1400 Intro to Sustainability and Environmental Ethics
• PHIL 3500 Buddhist Philosophy
• PHIL 4140 Nature, Sustainability, and the Environment
• PSC 4290 International Environmental Politics
• PSC 4350 Environmental Policy & Administration
• SOC 3250 Power, Privilege & Social Difference
• SOC 4220 Sustainable Urban Development
• SOC 4380 Globalization and Development
• SOC4580 Sociology of Disasters
• SOC/WEST 4200 Sociology of Poverty
• SPAN 3070 Sustainable Development in the Spanish-Speaking World
• WEST 2010 Intro to Race and Gender
• WEST 3220 Global Indigenous Issues
• WEST 3250 Peoples & Cultures of the Southwest
• WEST 3400 Advanced Theory: An Intersectional Approach
• WEST 4120 Indigenous Views on Sustainability
• WEST 4400 Indigenous Peoples
• WEST 4700 Global Feminism